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The Shattered's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #2 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Overall | #6 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #6 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Visuals(Graphics) | #16 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Sound/Audio | #19 | 2.333 | 2.333 |
Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://khaziu.itch.io/the-shattered/devlog/729794/the-shattered-version-072
Developer Feedback Questions
Hello, recently I've made a lot of changes to my first game.
To decrease the feeling of repeatability, I introduced few different arena scenarios and scenario modifications. Also, I added some visual effects and improvements for the web version.
Questions:
- Did the game hook you from the beginning? Why or why not?
- What elements of the game you like / don't like?
- Which aspects of the game do you think we should invest into (what direction to take with further development)
- Are there any features or mechanics you would like to see added to the game?
- Do you see potential in the game / is it worth to continue investment in that?
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Comments
this is a fun and interesting game! i had a good time playing it :)
> Did the game hook you from the beginning? Why or why not?
Yes, since the concept was interesting and the controls were easy. I think it would have hooked me a bit more if the difficulty increased a bit more quickly between the first bunch of levels and the boss.
> What elements of the game you like / don't like?
LIKE
- when the controls were very simple (just WASD & mouse clicks)
- the level up options between levels & how it impacts the player and enemies
- the animations
DISLIKE
- when i needed to start hitting more keys with my left hand
- the difficulty spike between the first boss and the level right after
- the items introduced too much complexity too soon
> Which aspects of the game do you think we should invest into
- polishing controls to be a bit more responsive
- better contrast between map/characters
- simplifying gameplay, especially earlier on
- more enemy types, earlier on
- really ironing out the difficulty curve
> Are there any features or mechanics you would like to see added to the game?
remappable controls maybe?
> Do you see potential in the game / is it worth to continue investment in that?
yes, definitely !
IMHO, my feelings from the game: the game positions itself as an arena battle, but I did not feel that I was fighting an equal opponent in the arena. In the arena, each fight with each opponent must be individualized, and require effort and ingenuity to win, when each new enemy is a challenge. Otherwise it turns into hunting animals.
But if it is still a hunt, then there should be a reward for the player for winning. Loot in the form of dropped items, gold or something else. The loot can be used immediately or later in the camp. Loot emotionally confirms mini victories during the hunt.
I've seen items and gems in screenshots, but I haven't gotten to this screen in the game. And loot should confirm emotions from the very beginning of the game, you know what I mean?
I like the amount of features that it has and all the different ways you can upgrade your character. The game's difficulty curve is a bit too easy at the start. For the first 5 levels it felt that I was just doing the same thing over and over again. Even the boss at level 5 is too easy. Also, the transitions between levels, and the time it takes for the enemies to spawn should both be faster to minimize the time the player spends waiting around.
Hi, thanks for your comment! I will try to address all the feedback you gave me in the next version :)
This is really good, I was hooked. I would recommend maybe ramping up the difficulty a bit sooner. I started to get bored thinking the game was too easy. But shortly after, it got way too hard!
I really enjoyed the combat. At first it was a little clunky, but after playing for a bit I really started to enjoy it!
Now personally, I would take this in a more traditional rougelite direction. After death, reset everything except for the shards (and definitely expand on that! Its a great form of meta-progression). Right now I feel kinda stuck, it got too hard and I have no building of my progression. On top of that, resetting the abilities would let you add new ones, and randomize which ones you get each run!
Your core gameplay is fantastic! Fix your pixels and put up a steam page, I think you have some good potential here.
Hi, thank you for your valuable feedback.
Setting the correct difficulty is a broad topic, but I suppose you are right and difficulty for first levels should be a bit higher. In your opinion, which levels should be made more difficult? I would like to achieve the balance between being easy to start but challenging and being boring to play.
Reseting traits will be introduced in upcoming release, unfortunately until then the only thing you can do is to farm more shards to customize build or just start again and pick different traits.
When it comes to fixing pixels, do you mean changing filter mode to "point (no filter)" so its more pixelart without anti-aliasing?
Anyway, your comments have motivated me to improve the game :)
Yes, I believe so. I am not sure the exact solution in your project, but some sprites like the character are aliased making them seem really blurry. I always try to avoid this when using pixel art, its a pretty common issue.
For the difficulty, its hard to give an exact answer, its just something you will have to iterate on. I would start by maybe making the base enemies a little more difficulty, and have their upgrades scale less. It feels right now like the enemies are 0 threat for half of the time I played, until the upgrades really started to compound and they became way too strong.
Yes, the game got me pretty hooked from the start, I think the first thing that got me excited was to notice there is a way to hit multiple enemies with one fireball
tbh, I am not a fan of gaming with the mouse, so would love to see this with a controller.
I see you have a lot of stuff when it comes to evolution and menus and all, but the game itself lacks on juice ... add some cool interesting effects and adaptive sounds and this can be quite a blast.
Yeah I think this has potential, but really needs some work on the juice part
Thank you for your review.
Currently I'm working on adding sound effects to the game, I hope you will like it :)
Support for controllers will be added at some point but I can't say when exactly since there is a lot of things to be done yet and the most parts of the game are being developed by myself. But it will be there, I promise!
Do you see any mechanics that could be added to the game to increase the "juice" or is it more just about adding more visual/sound effects to what is happening on the screen?